The CG looks great, and the blend to real-time stuff is cool, but I dunno if I could cope with the demos 3:1 ratio of cut scenes to gameplay for a whole game. But it is a demo after all and I sure that wont be the case in the final game.

The whole chanting people on towers and mass resurrection that results looks a bit sinister... I give odds of 3/1 that Japanese RPG Cliche #6291 (your character finds out that it's his country/government/ruler that're the bad guys) rears its head at some point.

Although this looks good a few of the previews said it had random battles which puts me off a bit. It might not be a killer but I think it makes the game world a bit life less. It just feels like you are wondering around a film set until you hit the next random battle.

glaeken wrote:
Although this looks good a few of the previews said it had random battles which puts me off a bit. It might not be a killer but I think it makes the game world a bit life less. It just feels like you are wondering around a film set until you hit the next random battle.

Yes I don't know how I feel about that. I would rather have every enemy on the world map like in Blue Dragon, but while I'm going through Enchanted Arms with its random battles, I'm kind of enjoying it. It's a good way to level up quickly.

Why at this stage in gaming are we still having random battles? Games like the Grandias, Symphonia etc are far better for having enemies or even just a representation of on enemy on the map. It adds life to the world. Even FF has moved away from them ffs.

glaeken wrote:
Although this looks good a few of the previews said it had random battles which puts me off a bit. It might not be a killer but I think it makes the game world a bit life less. It just feels like you are wondering around a film set until you hit the next random battle.

Yes I don't know how I feel about that. I would rather have every enemy on the world map like in Blue Dragon, but while I'm going through Enchanted Arms with its random battles, I'm kind of enjoying it. It's a good way to level up quickly.

Yeah I am enjoying Enchanted Arms as well so as I say it might not be a killer. What I really find particular in enchanted arms is there is no feeling of tension wondering around environments as random battles can really happen at any point.

I guess ultimately the random battle method can still lead to a good fun game its just I can not help thinking there must be a better way of doing it.

Keep in mind that this is the TGS demo, and not at all representative of the final product. There are some videos included; of them all, I'd say the video (cutscene) titled "The demo comes to a close" is worth viewing.

I almost think that they should've waited until they could show a finished game, as this demo is drawing a lot of dissapointment (from the less informed).

Well, yes. But this isn't just a.n.other JRPG on the 360 like Enchanted Arms, this is supposed to be one of the MEGA titles. For them to say it's actually "not all that" is sure to make some people wince. This is, after all, supposed to be convincing Japanophiles to pick up a new console...

Blerk wrote:
Well, yes. But this isn't just a.n.other JRPG on the 360 like Enchanted Arms, this is supposed to be one of the MEGA titles. For them to say it's actually "not all that" is sure to make some people wince. This is, after all, supposed to be convincing Japanophiles to pick up a new console...

Have you actually read the preview? It seems obvious it's a pretty early build, IGN makes that much clear.

Have you seen the staged demo from TGS/X06? That looked nothing like a PS2 JRPG running in high-def.

Lastly, it's Blue Dragon that will make JRPG lovers buy the 360, as the current preoder situation in Japan seems to indicate.

LeDilettante wrote:
Have you seen the staged demo from TGS/X06? That looked nothing like a PS2 JRPG running in high-def.

Graphically, no. But actual gameplay-wise it was more like an early PSOne RPG - very basic combat-wise. Like the preview says, there's apparently more to go in but until we've actually seen that stuff then the preview is all we have to go on.

Forebodin: First on my list is Trusty Bell/Eternal Sonata, which sounds fab.

Lex_Luthor wrote:
Looks nice, will buy. As expected though, some places this is already being championed by people who were usually pretty snidey about JRPGs when the PS2 was the best place to play them :/

That's because all turn-based JRPG's sucked before they came to the 360.

I have some reservations over this game, part because of the use of Unreal 3.0 engine since I really dont think FPS engines work well for RPGs and I am very suspecious of the story but then again I have yet to see any real details so I am sitting in the fence.